Roque Saenz Peña - San Nicolás (Buenos Aires)
S 34° 36.418 W 058° 22.509
21H E 373913 N 6169681
Granite statue of Roque Saenz Peña, President of Argentina in 1910-1914, is the key part of the monument devoted to him and situated on Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña in San Nicolás district of Buenos Aires.
Waymark Code: WMQA0E
Location: Argentina
Date Posted: 01/19/2016
Views: 3
Granite statue of Roque Saenz Peña, President of Argentina in 1910-1914, is the key part of the monument devoted to him and situated on Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña in San Nicolás district of Buenos Aires.
Roque Sáenz Peña Lahitte (March 19, 1851 – August 9, 1914) was President of Argentina from 12 October 1910 to 9 August 1914, when he died in office. He was the son of former President Luis Sáenz Peña. He was responsible for passing Law 8871, known as "Sáenz Peña Law", which greatly reformed the Argentine electoral system, making the vote secret, universal and compulsory for males over 18. This effectively ended the rule by electoral fraud of the conservative Argentine oligarchy, and paved the way for the rise of the Radical Civic Union in the first free elections of the country. President Roque Sáenz Peña Avenue in Buenos Aires is named after him.
He also served in the War of the Pacific as a lieutenant colonel of the Peruvian Army, and was made prisoner by Chile for six months following the Battle of Arica. He later served as Ambassador to Spain (1906–1907) and Italy (1907–1910). [wiki]
The Art Deco monument with Peña statue, unveiled in 1936 in the presence of president Agustín P. Justo, was sculpted in Paris by the Argentinian artist José Fioriavanti from a single block of Mar del Plata granite. The figure of the in chair sitting politician is seconded by two sculptures of standing people - one is a naked woman with child and the second is a man with a sword.